WITH graduation season again upon us, more than 85,000 California State University graduates are preparing to enter the work force. Yet this influx of new workers may not be enough to offset the massive “brain drain” plaguing the state’s economy.

Last month, the Public Policy Institute of California released a report that found that California faces a severe shortage of skilled workers if it doesn’t turn out additional college graduates. The report shows that the state needs to produce 160,000 more college graduates a year through 2025 to meet future demands for highly skilled labor.

Even more frightening, this comes on the heels of widely published reports revealing that within five years California will be the first large state in the country to spend more money on prisons than on higher education.

These reports reinforce what the California Faculty Association has been saying for years: California’s system of higher education is essential to the social and economic health of the state and also is woefully underfunded.

Few things are more important to the long-term viability of California’s social and economic health than accessibility to higher education. Yet for years advocates of privatization in California have starved the public universities, making it increasingly difficult to provide the instruction and student services that students need to succeed.

Their policies have shifted the burden of support onto students through relentless increases in student fees.

Fee hikes in the CSU have taken a particularly heavy toll on campuses like Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles and East Bay that serve the largest number of students of color — the very same population that the recent Public Policy Institute study says must be encouraged to attend college if the state is to meet the increased demand for graduates.

The impact of these fee increases is not limited to those campuses, however. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the per capita income of incoming students has been rising steadily during this era of fee hikes, leaving many less affluent white students also unable to afford a four-year college degree.

The last few years also have seen cutbacks in outreach and higher education funding throughout California, and an increased concern about the capacity of California’s higher education system to accommodate all the students who seek admission to its four-year colleges and universities.

These budgetary shortfalls have created a system that is ill-equipped to supply basic student service needs ranging from academic advising to tutoring and counseling — the very same services that were created to increase retention of first generation and minority students.

Given California’s demographics and its heavy reliance on a CSU system that offers broad access to college for people who never would have that opportunity in other states, fee hikes and continued budget shortfalls are virtually certain to exacerbate an already highly inequitable distribution of opportunity in the state.

Both reports demonstrate that universities provide a public good and that we ignore that fact at our own peril. Colleges give our students choices and the power to succeed in private industry or public service. Without public higher education, California faces a future of lower wage earners, lower tax revenue, fewer public services, and a rising racial and economic gap.

Unfortunately, over the years during good times and bad, higher education has been an easy target, and leaders repeatedly have reduced its level of funding. Too many of them regard college education exclusively as a way to enhance an individual’s ability to earn a higher income.

These articles demonstrate that higher education makes a much more significant contribution to the well-being of the state. Providing higher education is not just an investment in individuals; it is an investment in the state.

In addition to increasing the tax base of the state, education increases the odds that a young person will not go to prison and add to the burden on the state’s budget.

Lawmakers no longer must ignore the ways in which we all benefit from an educated population. Higher funding levels must be restored to our state’s public higher education institutions if the state economy is to rebound and return to prosperity.

Lillian Taiz is president of the California Faculty Association and a professor of history at California State University, Los Angeles.